Chronic treatment of exendin-4 affects cell proliferation and neuroblast differentiation in the adult mouse hippocampal dentate gyrus.

Neurosci Lett · 2010

Last updated 2026-05-28

In a study on mice, researchers gave exendin-4—a drug that works like GLP-1—twice daily for 21 days. Compared to untreated mice, those given exendin-4 had 1.51 times more cells showing cell growth, 2.5 times more cells involved in brain cell development, and 2.46 times more cells that were both growing and developing. The findings suggest that exendin-4 may support brain cell growth and development in a specific brain region.

AI summary of the abstract below.

Journal	Neurosci Lett, 2010
Citations	30
Relative citation ratio	0.83
NIH percentile	44
Molecules	—
Conditions studied	Depression, Alzheimers

Abstract

Exendin-4 isolated from Heloderma suspectum venom acts via glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor and has clinically been used in the type 2 diabetes. In this study, we investigated the effects of exendin-4 on cell proliferation and neuroblast differentiation in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the dentate gyrus in mice. Exendin-4 was treated intraperitoneally to male ICR mice twice a day for 21 days. The exendin-4-treated group showed a significantly higher number of Ki67- (1.51-fold), doublecortin (DCX)- (2.5-fold) and 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU)+DCX- (2.46-fold) immunoreactive cells in the SGZ of the dentate gyrus compared to the control group. The results of this study showed that treatment with exendin-4 increased cell proliferation neuroblast differentiation in the SGZ of the dentate gyrus, suggesting that exendin-4 promotes structural plasticity in the dentate gyrus.

Verbatim abstract via PubMed 20854877 ↗